Milk measurement and milk collection

ABSTRACT

In a milking facility ( 1 ) provided with on-site measuring equipment ( 9 ) capable of measuring a quality and/or quantity of milk produced, wherein the milk produced is stored in a milk tank ( 5 ) and is then collected ( 79 ) by a dairy plant, there is provided a method comprising the steps of: (i) receiving ( 61 ) a measured value indicative of the quality and/or quantity of milk produced in the milking facility from the on-site measuring equipment; (ii) receiving ( 99 ) from the dairy plant a corresponding measured value indicative of the quality and/or quantity of milk collected and transported, wherein the dairy plant is provided with high-quality measuring equipment ( 41 ); (iii) comparing ( 93 ) the measured values from the on-site measuring equipment of the milking facility and from the dairy plant; and (iv) calibrating or verifying ( 95 ) the on-site measuring equipment of the milking facility depending on the result of the comparison.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to dairy farming and dairyindustry.

Particularly, the invention relates to a method and a device,respectively, in a computer-controlled milking facility aiming atimproving milk measurements as performed at the milking facility, to amethod and a device, respectively, in a dairy plant aiming at improvingcollection of milk from the milking facility as performed by the dairyplant, and to computer program products loadable into computers of themilking facility and the dairy plant, respectively, for performing therespective methods.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In modern dairy farm industry there are continuous research anddevelopment activities in order to improve the efficiency of variousactivities such as machine milking, which, inter alia, involvesincreased milk yield and reduced milking time.

A major trend in this respect is an increased degree of automation ofthe various activities. For instance, machine milking may be performedby milking robots in a completely automated manner. Such an automaticmilking system may take care of milking, feeding, milk sampling, animaltraffic, etcetera in a large area wherein the dairy animals are walkingabout freely and are visiting the milking machine on a voluntary basis.

In order to manage a herd of dairy animals, including selection ofmilking animals and of breeding animals, feeding, detection ofillnesses, etcetera, it is important to monitor the quantity and qualityof milk produced at a milking facility on an average level, on acow-individual basis and even on a teat-individual basis. To this endmilk samples are representatively taken from the milk produced by a herdof cows, by a single cow, or by a single teat, and are sent to alaboratory for analysis on regular time basis, e.g. once or a few timesa month. The result of the analysis (e.g. contents of fat, protein,bacteria, and spores, and somatic cell count values) are typicallyprovided some days or weeks later and appropriate actions are takenbased on said results.

Further, the dairy farmer is paid for the milk produced based on suchresults, particularly the contents of fat and protein.

In order to render the milk production more effective the milking robotsmay be equipped with uncomplicated milk inspection units, e.g.conductance meters and optic sensors, for measurement of some qualityparameters on-site in real time. It is foreseen that such on-sitemeasuring equipment will become more and more sophisticated as well asmore and more common in the near future.

However, such milk measuring equipment nevertheless has to be of lowcost such that the milk producers will invest in such equipment. Onedrawback of such approach, however, is that such on-site measuringequipment may not provide accurate, precise and reliable measurements,and thus, such measurements may not be valuable to the milk producer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and adevice, respectively, in a computer-controlled milking facility providedwith on-site measuring equipment capable of measuring a quality and/orquantity of milk being produced in said milking facility, wherein themilk produced is stored in a milk tank of the milking facility and isthen collected and transported to a dairy plant, which method and deviceimprove the accuracy and reliability of the on-site measuring equipment.

It is a further object to provide such method and device, which arereliable, of low cost, and easy to implement in an existingcomputer-controlled milking facility.

It is still a further object to provide a computer program productloadable into a computer of the milking facility for performing theabove said method when said program product is run on said computer.

It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a methodand a device, respectively, in a dairy plant, which uses amilk-collecting vehicle for collecting milk from a plurality ofcomputer-controlled milking facilities, each provided with milkmeasuring equipment, e.g. a flow meter, which method and device arecapable of planning an optimal milk collection route.

It is still a further object to provide such method and device, whichare reliable, of low cost, and easy to implement in an existing dairyplant.

It is yet a further object to provide a computer program productloadable into a computer of the dairy plant for performing the abovesaid method capable of planning an optimal milk collection route whensaid program product is run on said computer.

These objects, among others, are according to the present inventionattained by methods, devices, and computer program products as claimedin the appended patent claims.

By the provision of a calibration/verification operation at the milkingfacility based on measurements performed by the dairy plant, or alaboratory contracted by it, the dairy plant will have an increasedconfidence in measurements performed by the milking facility. In somecircumstances, the dairy plant needs thus only to perform randominspections of the measurements performed by the milking facility and inother circumstances the dairy plant can fully rely on the milkingfacility measurements.

By the communication of milk quantity measurement data to the dairyplant prior to milk collection an optimal milk collection route can bescheduled by the dairy plant. When the confidence in such milk quantitymeasurement data is increased, such planning is of particular interest.

If milk quality measurement data is communicated to the dairy plantprior to milk collection a milk quality-selective milk collection routecan be scheduled by the dairy plant, i.e. milk of particular quality canbe scheduled to be collected separately to thereby provide for deliveryof milk of a quality.

Further, a scheduled time for milk collection can be communicated to themilking facility to facilitate planning of operations that may affect,or be affected by, the collection of milk at the milking facility suchas e.g. cleaning of a milk tank wherein milk is stored before collectionby the dairy plant.

Further characteristics of the invention and advantages thereof will beevident from the following detailed description of embodiments of theinvention given hereinbelow and the accompanying FIGS. 1-2, which aregiven by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of thepresent invention.

In the following detailed description the milk producing animals arecows. However, the invention is not limited to cows, but is applicableto any animals having the capability to produce large quantities ofmilk, such as sheep, goats, buffaloes, horses, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates, in a schematic view, a milking facility and a dairyplant, respectively, which are connected by a bi-directionalcommunication line to provide for the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates, schematically, in a combined flow diagram andsignaling scheme a method according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, for purposes of explanation and notlimitation, specific details are set forth, such as particulartechniques and applications in order to provide a thorough understandingof the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled inthe art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodimentsthat depart from these specific details.

With reference to FIG. 1, which illustrates in a schematic view anautomatic milking facility 1 and a dairy plant 31, respectively, whichare connected by means of a bi-directional communication line 51, thepresent invention will be described.

The automatic milking facility 1 comprises an automatic milking robot 3arranged for voluntary milking of freely walking cows, i.e. the cowsenter the milking facility in order to be milked when they need to (orwant to). The milking robot 3 includes four teat cups, schematicallyindicated at 4 a, each being individually connectable to a source ofvacuum, and each being connected to an end unit for collection of milk(not illustrated). Further, the milking facility is provided with a milkflow-measuring device capable of, during milking, in-situ measuring theindividual milk flow from each teat of the cow being milked. Prior tomilking, the teat cups are typically applied to the teats of the cow insome sequential order by means of a robot arm 4 b.

Furthermore, there is provided a central processing unit, typically inform of a computer 11 for controlling the access to the milking robot 3and the milking performed by the milking robot 3. The computer 11 isfurther holding a database of the freely walking cows and provided withan identification system for identifying a cow approaching the milkingrobot 3 to thereby control and manage the milking on a cow-individual,or even teat-individual, level.

The milk collected in the end unit is measured by means of a mass flowmilk meter 9, after which the milk is pumped via a milk line 7 to a milktank 5, where the milk is stored until the tank 5 is emptied by a milkcollecting vehicle 33 from the dairy plant 31. Such milk collection istypically performed once a day, or every second or third day.

The measured mass flow of milk is transmitted over a signal conduit 13to an input terminal 15 of the computer 11, such that the computer 11can deduce information of the amount of milk stored in the milk tank 5at every given time.

Further, the milking facility can according to the present invention beprovided with further on-site measurement equipment for measuring of thequality of milk produced by the milking facility 1, such as aconductance measuring device 9 a connected to a second input terminal 15a of the computer 11 via a second signal conduit 13 a and/or a infraredspectrometer device 9 b connected to a third input terminal 15 b of thecomputer 11 via a third signal conduit 13 b.

By means of such milk quality measurement equipment for instance thecontent of fat, protein, bacteria and spores, and a somatic cell countvalue can be obtained in the computer 11.

The milk quality measurement equipment 9 a, 9 b can be arranged at anylocation of the milk facility 1, e.g. at the milk tank 5 for measuringthe quality of milk as collected from many cows, at the end unit or atthe milk line 7 for measuring the quality of milk as collected from eachsingle cow separately, or even before the end unit in the teat cups 4 aor in the milk lines connecting the teat cups 4 a to the end unit formeasuring the quality of milk as collected from each single teat of eachcow separately.

All measured values indicative of the quantity and quality of milkproduced in the milking facility are stored in the computer 11.

Turning now to the dairy plant 31, which is collecting the milk from themilk tank 5 of the milking facility 1 and refines the milk collected andmanufactures various products based on milk such as e.g. milk ofdifferent fat contents, yogurt, soured milk, butter, and cheese. To thisend the dairy plant can include numerous machines, apparatus, equipmentknown in the art.

For the purpose of the present invention the dairy plant 31 is at leastprovided with a processing device such as a computer 37, and milkmeasuring and analyzing capability. Further, a milk-collecting vehicle33 is used for delivering raw milk to the dairy plant.

The quantitative measurements of milk collected from a milking facilityis typically performed by means of a calibrated and approved milk meter(not illustrated) at the milk collecting vehicle 33 while pumping themilk from the milk tank of the milking facility to the milk collectingvehicle 33. In connection thereto, a milk sample is representativelytaken and transported (schematically illustrated by arrows 35 and 43) toan analyzing laboratory at the dairy plant or to a separate laboratory41 contracted by the dairy plant 31. After an amount of time, typically1-4 days, test results are sent to the dairy plant (schematicallyillustrated by arrow 45), where these results typically relate to thefat and protein contents and the somatic cell count value of the milkcollected.

The payment to the milk producer is then based on the quantity and onthe quality of the milk collected as measured by the dairy plant or bythe contracted laboratory.

It shall be appreciated that while the milk meter and laboratoryequipment used by the dairy plant 31 is high-quality equipment usingwell-known measuring methods and procedures, the milk measuringequipment at the milking facility is more of an uncomplicated fieldequipment of low cost, which may use a principle of measurement notalways providing reliable results, but which yields results quickly.This holds particularly for the milk quality measuring equipment.

Thus, it is convenient to refer to the equipment used by the dairy plantas high-quality equipment, whether the field equipment used at themilking facility is referred to as on-site measurement equipment.

The present invention is concerned with communication between themilking facility 1 and the dairy plant 31 and operations, which may beperformed as a result of such communication. To this end the computers11 and 37 of the respective structures 1 and 31 are provided with arespective transceiver 17 and 39, such that a bi-directionalcommunication line 51 can be established between the computers 11 and37.

The transceivers 17, 39 and the communication line 51 can be of anykind, e.g. modems communicating over a called line, a fixed line, or acellular network.

It shall further be appreciated that the dairy plant 31 can establishsuch communication lines to a plurality of different milking facilitiesor milk production plants, as well as that the milking facility 1 canestablish communication lines to a plurality of different dairy plants,schematically indicated by bi-directional arrows at 53.

Communication from the milking facility 1 to the dairy plant 31 mayinclude information as to the amount of milk stored in the milk tank 5ready to be collected and such information may be used at the dairyplant site to plan a milk collection route, such that an effective milkcollection can be realized.

The amount of milk stored in the milk tank 5 as measured on-site, andpossibly the quality thereof, may be communicated to a plurality ofdairy plants or may be communicated to a spot market site, e.g. on theInternet, to thereby have the milk sold to and collected by a dairycustomer.

Communication from the dairy plant 31 to the milking facility 1 mayinclude information as to the amount and quality of milk collected fromthe milk tank 5 and such information may be used at the milking facilitysite to verify or calibrate its on-site milk measuring equipment.

With reference next to FIG. 2 communication and operation according to aparticular embodiment of the present invention will be described, wherethe communication is performed by means of the arrangement asillustrated in FIG. 1.

In a step 61, a milk quantity as produced in the milking facility 1 (andthat can be collected) is measured by means of the on-site milk meter 9,and in a following step 63, at least one quality related parameter ofthe milk produced is measured by means of the measuring equipment 9 a-b.

Next, in a step 65, these measured quantity and quality parameters arecommunicated to the dairy plant 31 over the communication line 51,possibly together with an identification of the milking facility 1 and atime stamp indicating the time of signaling or the time, at which themilk measurements were performed, and, in a step 67, this data isreceived at the dairy plant 31.

This information can be very important to the dairy plant, particularlyif it has confidence in the data transmitted, and knows that the data iscorrect. Thus, in a step 69, a milk collection route for collection ofmilk is planned by the dairy plant based on the received value of milkquantity. Such planning is particularly useful if a large number ofmilking facilities communicate their respective milk quantities to thedairy plant 31. The planning can for instance be performed to minimizethe distance that a vehicle has to move in order to collect the milk atall milking facilities. Further, if a planned route results in that thevehicle has an additional capacity of e.g. 300 liters such amount may becollected from a milking facility on, or close to, the route, which has300 liters to be collected but which does not necessarily have a fullmilk tank.

It shall be noted that because the milking facilities arecomputer-controlled and use a voluntary milking where milking may beperformed more or less continuously, there are no natural collectiontimes, i.e. times when no milking takes place, and thus the milk can becollected at points of time convenient for the dairy plants, i.e. basedon the above-said milk collection routes.

Another possibility, which may be utilized, is the knowledge of the milkquality of the milk at the different milking facilities. It is foreseenthat it can be very useful to collect milk of a particular quality oneday and milk of another quality the following day and to refine the milkin a manner, which is depending on the quality thereof. Thus, in a step71 a milk collection route for quality selective collection of milk isplanned by the dairy plant based on the received values of milk quantityand quality parameters.

When a milk collection route for collection of milk at the milkingfacility is planned a scheduled collection time for the collection ofthe milk is estimated, and this estimated time is, in a step 73,communicated to the milking facility 1, and then the milking facilitycan, in a step 77, plan operation of an activity, which affects or isaffected by the milk collection.

Examples of such milk collection affected activities include variouskinds of activities which need the shutdown of parts of the milkingfacility and thus such activities are planned to be performed while themilk is collected (when the milking facility is shutdown anyway).Cleaning of the milking facility (particularly of the milking robot 3and the milk line 7), and maintenance of the milking facility includingcalibration of milk flow meters and mechanical adjustments thereof,change of milk filters, and change of teat cup liners and milk hoses aresome typical milk collection affected activities.

Next, in a step, 79, the milk at the milking facility is measured andcollected by the milk-collecting vehicle 33, and a milk sample isrepresentatively taken from the milk before or during collection. Then,in a step 81, the empty milk tank 5 of the milking facility 1 ispreferably cleaned, possibly along with the rest of the facility.

The collected milk is transported to the dairy plant 31, where the milkis received in a step 83, and the value of the amount of milk measuredin the step 79 is forwarded to the dairy plant computer 37 in a step 85.

The milk sample is forwarded to an analyzing high-quality laboratory ina step, where, in a step 87, a quality, e.g. content of fat, protein,bacteria and/or spores, and/or a somatic cell count value are/ismeasured. At least one of the quality parameters measured in the step 63is also measured in the step 87.

Values of the measured amount of milk collected as well as values ofmeasured milk quality parameters are, in a step 89, forwarded to themilking facility.

Alternatively, the dairy plant is itself provided with analyzinghigh-quality equipment for measuring a quality, e.g. content of fat,protein, bacteria and/or spores, and/or a somatic cell count value.

Still alternatively, values of measured milk quality parameters areforwarded directly to the milking facility from the laboratory.

At the milking facility these values, received in a step 91, are treatedas true ones (due to the more advanced measuring equipment at the dairyplant), and thus, in a step 93 these values are compared with theearlier measured values at the milking facility (measured in steps 61and 63 by the on-site measurement equipment 9, 9 a, 9 b), and finally,in a step 95 the on-site measurement equipment 9, 9 a, 9 b is calibratedor verified depending on the result of the comparison performed in thestep 93.

Such calibration may be performed in a plurality of ways and istypically performed based on some average value such that systematicalerrors of the milk meter 9, 9 a, 9 b are eliminated and the accuracy ofsubsequent performed measurements is improved.

It shall further be appreciated that as an alternative to the milk meter9, or a complement thereto, a milk level indicator may be provided atthe milk tank 5 for sensing the level of milk therein.

It shall be appreciated that both the milking facility and the dairyplant can benefit from such a co-operation, i.e. communication andexchanging of information. Particularly, operations performed in steps69 and 71 at the dairy plant and operations performed in steps 77 and 95at the milking facility are based on two-way communication between theparties.

The milking facility can verify its on-site measuring equipment and thedairy plant can—in the view of having confidence in the on-sitemeasuring equipment of the milking facility thanks to the verification(and calibration thereof)—plan its milk collection routes, and even planand perform milk collection routes for quality-selective milkcollection.

It will be obvious that the invention may be varied in a plurality ofways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from thescope of the invention. All such modifications as would be obvious toone skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope ofthe appended claims.

1. A method in a computer-controlled milking facility provided withon-site measuring equipment capable of measuring a quality and/orquantity of milk being produced in said milking facility, wherein themilk produced is stored in a milk tank of the milking facility and isthen collected and transported to a dairy plant, said method comprisingthe steps of: providing a first measured value of milk produced in themilking facility as measured by the on-site measuring equipment of themilking facility; receiving a corresponding second measured value ofsaid milk from a site equipped with high-quality measuring equipment,and to which a sample of said milk is transported, or from the dairyplant to which said milk is transported, wherein the dairy plant isprovided with high-quality measuring equipment, or is in communicationwith the site equipped with high-quality measuring equipment, and towhich a sample of said milk is transported, the first measured value andthe second measured value measuring at least one same characteristic ofthe milk; comparing the at least one same characteristic of the firstand the second measured values; and calibrating said on-site measuringequipment of the milking facility depending on the result of saidcomparison.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said first andsecond measured values are indicative of the quantity of collected andtransported milk, and said first measured value is measured by a milkflow meter, a group of milk flow meters, or a milk level indicator atthe milk tank.
 3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein saidcorresponding second measured value is received from a dairy plant asmeasured by high-quality equipment located at the dairy plant or at avehicle used for the collection of the milk.
 4. The method as claimed inclaim 2 wherein said first measured value is communicated to said dairyplant prior to the collection of the milk to thereby allow for planningof a milk collection route and time schedule by the dairy plant.
 5. Themethod as claimed in claim 4 wherein an indication of a time when themilk is to be collected is received from said dairy plant prior to thecollection of the milk to thereby provide for planning of a milkcollection related operation.
 6. The method as claimed in claim 2wherein the first measured value is communicated to a plurality of dairyplants or is communicated to a market site prior to the collection ofthe milk.
 7. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein a further measuredvalue indicative of the quality of milk produced in the milking facilityas measured by the on-site measuring equipment of the milking facilityis provided; a further corresponding measured value indicative of thequality of milk transported to the dairy plant as measured by thehigh-quality measuring equipment is received; said further measuredvalues indicative of the quality of milk from the measuring equipment ofthe milking facility are compared with said corresponding measured valuefrom the high-quality measuring equipment; and said measuring equipmentof the milking facility is calibrated or verified depending on theresult of said comparison of further measured values indicative of thequality of milk.
 8. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said firstand second measured values are indicative of the quality of said milk.9. The method as claimed in claim 8 wherein said first and secondmeasured values indicative of the quality of milk transported to thedairy plant are measures of the content of any of fat, protein, bacteriaor spores, or is a somatic cell count value.
 10. The method as claimedin claim 8 wherein said first measured value indicative of the qualityof milk is communicated to said dairy plant prior to the collection ofthe milk to thereby allow for planning of quality selective milkcollection routes by the dairy plant.